Prior to the wide spread use of global computer networks, many individuals relied on media like newspapers and radio and television broadcasts to obtain “news” or information about rapidly changing situations and current events. Today, global computer networks such as the Internet provide an additional source of information. For some individuals, computer network sources have eclipsed the importance of the older, more traditional media because these networks are capable of supporting extremely rapid publication of large amounts of information. Each document or resource that is made accessible through the Internet, for example, is given a unique identifier or Uniform Resource Locator (URL). As a result, individuals may be given direct access to information from essentially any source throughout the world.
This has proven to be a mixed blessing. On one hand, having access to large amounts of information is better than having access to only a restricted subset of this information; more is better. On the other hand, the volume of available information has grown to such an extent that most individuals are overwhelmed by the amount of work required to find or identify information of particular interest. It is no longer feasible for individuals to find information by merely perusing global computer networks to discover what exists.
A number of techniques have been developed in an attempt to solve this problem. One class of techniques “pulls” information to an individual in response to a request. Network facilities called “search engines” assist in the task of finding information by searching for documents and other elements of information that are deemed to satisfy one or more search criteria provided by an individual, and then allowing the individual to request or “pull” selected information from its source. Facilities called “meta search engines” provide an additional level of support by invoking multiple search engines in search of requested information.
Another class of techniques “pushes” information to an individual in response to a request. Facilities known as “robots” or “agents” assist in the search for information by first identifying information that is pertinent to one or more criteria specified by an individual, and then causing that information to be sent or “pushed” to the individual.
Although these techniques have achieved some degree of success in finding information, they have not provided facilities for presenting this information in a form that has desirable features like the easily readable layout of a traditional newspaper.